


Piles of Leaves

by MissMairin



Series: First Meetings [4]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 20:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3704199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMairin/pseuds/MissMairin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lovino storms out of the apartment he shares with his brother, and in an attempt to isolate himself, takes a walk to the park. Everything is normal -- including his ranting -- until a strange man pops out of a pile of leaves. Unfortunately, he's even more obnoxious than Lovino's brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Piles of Leaves

“Fine!” Lovino snapped at his brother, stalking towards the door and yanked it open. “I see how it is. I’m not wanted here, am I?”

 

Feliciano trailed behind him, feeling helpless. In one last effort to calm his brother down and prevent him from leaving, Feliciano said, “You’re welcome to have lunch with us, Lovi. Please stay?”

 

“Stay? And watch you two make googly eyes at each other all day?” Lovino barked in laughter, shaking his head in pseudo-amusement. “No thanks! I’m leaving, and don’t wait up for me.”

 

He turned and stomped over the threshold of their apartment, slamming the door behind him. Continuing his miniature tantrum, he forewent the elevator and stomped down the few flights of stairs, trying to make as much banging noise as possible. That would teach all the lovey-dovey couples in their apartment building a lesson.

 

What lesson, he wasn’t sure, but it made him feel better trampling the metal stairwell. He opened the back doorway and stepped outside, fully expecting it to be rainy and cloudy: a complement to his terrible mood. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) it was a beautiful autumn day. Blue skies, a soft breeze, and the perfect temperature.

 

It made him sick.

 

Lovino stuck his hands into his jacket pockets and took the familiar path to the park. He didn’t really know why he was going to the park. Maybe to torture himself with more cute couples? It didn’t matter anyway, his feet were leading him to the park, like they had a mind of their own.

 

He grumbled to himself the entire walk there, cursing everyone in the world. Occasionally he would kick something to soothe his anger, but to no avail. Glancing up, he noticed he had already arrived at the entrance to the local park. He went through the open gate, glaring at everything around him.

 

“Stupid rock.”

 

Lovino kicked the rock off the sidewalk half-heartedly, watching as it skittered off into the freshly mown grass. He continued to walk through the park, trying to ignore exactly how pretty the leaves were, changing colors and falling to the ground.

 

“Stupid twig.”

 

Kick.

 

“Stupid acorn.”

 

Kick.

 

“Stupid, stupid pile of leaves.”

 

Kick.

 

“Ow!” a voice yelped from inside the pile of leaves.

 

Lovino screamed and jumped backward, scrambling to the other side of the sidewalk, away from the haunted pile of leaves. A man groaned and the pile of leaves rustled. Lovino shrieked, “What the hell?!”

 

The man from the leaves groaned again and stood up, brushing off stray leaves that stuck to his body. He bent over slightly, rubbing his shin -- probably where Lovino had not-so-kindly kicked him.

 

Lovino’s anger was being rapidly replaced by fear. He stepped backwards again, the back of his thighs hitting a wooden bench. Scampering around the bench, he pointed at the strange man, yelling, “Stay away from me, weird homeless guy that lives in the leaves!”

 

The ‘weird homeless guy that lives in the leaves’ paused and looked up, confused. He glanced at Lovino, obviously perplexed at why they were scared. Then, he looked down at himself. He was wearing faded jeans littered with dirt and grass stains, along with a ratty old t-shirt with some other type of stains on it.

 

“Wait… I’m not homeless or weird!” The man said, finally understanding the problem. He rubbed his neck anxiously and quickly explained, “My name is Antonio. I was just working in my garden and then I went for a walk! I jumped into the pile of leaves for fun, not because I’m creepy. I promise.”

 

“You talk too much,” Lovino muttered, but relaxed significantly. His face softened with curiosity as he eyed Antonio up. He walked around to the front of the bench before asking, “You have a garden?”

 

“Yup,” Antonio answered in a sing-song voice, “I grow a lot of tomatoes!”

 

“I can see that,” Lovino replied snarkily, glaring at the red splotches on Antonio’s white shirt. He took a step closer to Antonio, obviously trying to adjust and seem unaffected by the utter outlandishness of the entire situation. Unfortunately, his stomach rumbles. Lovino smacked his forehead with his palm, groaning in embarrassment.

 

Antonio’s eyes lit up and he laughed, a sound that went well with the type of clear-blue sky day it was. “You are hungry, are you not?”

 

“I’m not hungry, you idiot. That was probably just… thunder,” Lovino finished lamely, wincing at his terrible ability to lie.

 

“Yeah,” Antonio agreed, smiling as he looked up at the bright blue sky, “Thunder.”

 

Lovino scowled.

 

“Why don’t you come with me?” Antonio offered, still smiling brightly. “We can have lunch together?”

 

“And why should I do that?” Lovino snapped in defense. He usually used anger and annoyance to cover up his embarrassment and his shyness, but it wasn’t working on this imbecile. How obnoxious.

 

Antonio tapped his finger on his chin, thinking. He tapped his foot on the concrete sidewalk as well, before his eyes lit up again and he smiled brightly, explaining his reasoning.

 

“I make a mean _ternera con tomate_. You are hungry,” he explained, eyes twinkling with mischief. “Are those not good enough reasons?”

 

Lovino rolled his eyes and huffed, crossing his arms. In an effort to delay his answer, he grumbled, “In English, please.”

 

“Ah… Beef tomato stew. It’s very delicious.”

 

A stomach grumbled, and it wasn’t Antonio’s. Lovino turns red in embarrassment, and huffed to cover up his slight insecurity. He shuffled his feet anxiously and twiddled with a stray thread off his jacket before finally groaning and giving in. “Well… If you’re insisting so much then fine! I’ll go with you.”

 

“Wonderful!” Antonio announced, clapping his hands and smiling. He skipped towards the other man, and pulled him down the sidewalk as Lovino mumbled something about being stupid. Antonio looked over at him once again as his eyes twinkled again with mischief and said, “Next time, you might want to avoid kicking random piles of leaves.”

 

“Yeah…” Lovino snorted, trying to squash the small smile on his face, “I’ll have to remember that. Now let’s go get some food.”

 

 


End file.
